More interesting and random news stories

I think it was Donna whom had told me that scientists could grow human ears on the backs of mice. Well, on this snowy Friday morning, I decided to look it up. Of course, she was right. Get a load of this:

Click on photo to read the article. And that was 5 years ago! So I got curious as to what else they were doing with mice nowadays.

Mice Growing Human Ovaries - yeah, just look at that photo. I'll blame my ovaries when I get fat. ;)

Mice with Human Brain Cells - don't worry, they didn't turn into Pinkey and the Brain.

Mice and hope for Muscular Dystrophy - very recent news

Genetically Engineered "Fearless" Mice snuggle with cats

 

And besides mice, here's some other interesting reading material:

Glow In the Dark Cloned Kitties! The pictures are pretty rad.

Grizzley-Polar Bear Hybrid - I think it's pretty cute!

Why Pregnant Women Don't Fall Over - but I'm clumsy so I'm sure I'd find a way

Trophy Hunting Male Polar Bears can be very bad - This is why I am anti-hunting for predator species in general... definitely anti-polar bear hunting

A Whale Takes an 800 Mile Trip up the Amazon River... and finally died. Bummer. But kudos to its pioneering spirit. ;)

Major Earthquake May Hit San Fran Next Year

Coffee May Protect Female Memory - at this rate you'd think I'd remember more? ;)

The Most Expensive Home Sale in America was, of course, here in Estes Park. Yuck.

A List of Happiest and Saddest States in this article. I don't know how much I believe it, because it says Michigan is happier than Colorado. But at least Michigan and Alaska are right next to eachother, so I know what I'm in for when I finally get there. ;)

And an Eel Powered X-mas Tree in Japan

And then here's something interesting - I doubt anybody remembers last year when Tim and I hiked those two fourteener mountains (Sneffles and Shavano) for Backpacker Magazine but they finally posted our routes that we mapped via GPS. Of course, Tim didn't give me any credit even though he had no idea how to use the damned thing! But really, it was all me. ;)  Here's Sneffles Route, and here's Shavano.

Finally got an X-mas tree... another living, 8 inch tall beauty from the grocery store... since I accidentally killed the one from last year. A little more snow today on the ground, but since I twisted me knee snowboarding last weekend, looks like I'm still grounded for another week or so. I did finally get my skis mounted and when I'm recovered, hopefully I'll be able to do some telemark skiing! Tim has a friend that works at the Alta Ski Resort in Utah, and it's skis only - no snowboards allowed! We might go out there in the end of January.

So I finally looked up what a certain IBM commercial has been touting - DNA ancestry tests. If I had an extra $100, I'd totally do it. You send in DNA via a cheek swab sample and the compare your DNA to see where your ancestors migrated from. It doesn't tell you who you ancestors were, so you won't see Grandpa Bob on there, but I think it's fascinating. Especially after how I head read an article that did the same test on some girl that may have been decended from "Amazon Women"... which were actually from Mongolian women or something. Complicated, so don't ask because I don't remember (guess I better step up the coffee intake). There's quite a few companies out there that do these DNA tests too. This one is themost expensive I've seen - $1000!! - and apparently scans for your probability of getting certain diseases. Just search for DNA ancestry test on yahoo and you'll find them. Most are $100-250.

Ok enough of this nonsense. It's time to hang stockings or something holiday-ish.

News, winter, etc

Lots of interesting stuff in the news lately. Mostly, not good. Colorado, like my sister Sue always told me, is full of psychos. Such as the dude that killed 4 people - 2 people at two different places - out of "religious revenge" or something of the like. Jeez. Then, there's the dude that died in an avalanche... on a day when there were warnings all over the freaking place about avalanches... and keep in mind this was "at least" his THIRD avalanche he had been caught in. Ok, maybe it sounds harsh but YOU SHOULD HAVE LEARNED THE FIRST 2 TIMES! Seriously. You can learn how to avoid avalanches, and how to HOPEFULLY survive them if you get caught. Most of the articles about this accident leave out the fact that this was his third avalanche he has been caught in. These things happen when you do dangerous stuff! Hey maybe someday something crappy will happen to me but maybe I'll figure out not to do it again if it happens 2 times. It does sounds like he was an extreme sports kindof guy though, and there's the theory that those people who are good at the extreme, die in the extreme... This is why I'm taking an avalanche course this winter!

Then there's global warming. Al Gore gets a share in the Nobel Peace Prize (told ya'll to watch "The Inconvenient Truth"!!!) but it doesn't stop the now blatantly obvious problem of the arctic melting - you know, all the stuff republicans told you wasn't happening. Also note that Colorado academia people are quoted in that.

Another, more local, bit of news - the ELK CULLING PROPOSAL of Rocky Mountain National Park. Jeez, it's about time. Nothing is killing those elk, including the hunters who seemed to have a darned time trying to find those beasts on public land. Of course, they're all over residential areas, and the golf course, and the field across from my house. Which drove Logan nuts of course. Something needs to be done! And I sure hope I get to be one of those "park employees" that gets to help out. And thank goodness they've found a way to donate the meat. Donating meat is a lot more expensive than you would think, given the requirements to test for Chronic Wasting Disease and then some requirement of USDA certified processing... Hey maybe if I'm lucky I can be considered the "needy" when I'm unemployed next year and get some elk meat! I didn't sit in on the meeting and the media screws up most everything they report on, so take that article for what you will.

From Winter '07-'08

I finally finished a very belated anniversary gift to Tim... a painting of two wolves running along the mountains under the aurora borealis. Here it is as best as I could photograph it...

Enough of the wind already! And Tim's 5 seconds of fame

Just hanging out at the coffee shop in Lyons while my truck is in the shop again. This time, it's a little more pricey than an oil change... all that new clean oil has been leaking all over Tim's driveway! A valve cover is leaking, so I'm looking at dropping all the money I made last week helping a tree climber remove 3 cottonwoods from downtown last week. Probably $300... Plus my catalytic converter is on it's way out... At least everything else is looking good, otherwise I'd probably throw the truck off a parking structure or roll a boulder over it like in those Toyota commercials. ;)  Hey, I'm now pushing 187k miles and really, my truck still kicks butt. Even though the cab smells like wet dog and has dog-nose smears all over the back windows!

Tim and I finally made it out for the first time this season to Summit county. He hadn't been skiing in 6 years, though it sounded like he was really freakin' good back when he lived in Maine. He was itchin' to try out his new AT skis and bindings, and of course he did awesome and blew me away on my snowboard. Though I did tear it up better than I thought I would. On our way out there at 7 am, it was raining all the way from Estes until the Eisenhower Tunnel. Once we got to the other side of the tunnel (which is at least a mile or two long), the snow flurries began, though blue sky peeked through. We went to Breckenridge and it was insanely busy, seeing as only 3 ski lifts were open. As the day went on, the flurries gave way to the snowstorm we had been hoping for! Even with a balaclava covering my face, it was bitter on my cheeks and nose as snow piled up on us just within the 5-10 minute rides up the ski lifts. The powder settled on the mountain and we went from having a good day, to having a great day! Ironically, as it snowed harder and visiblity was almost as poor as when my friends were out here last year during that huge storm, people opted to leave instead of staying to savor the fresh snow! Which was great for us, the lift lines went from a long wait, to walking right up and sitting right down. I did pretty well, though Tim was impressed by one particularly flashy spill I took. ;)  We were exhausted by 3:30 (mountain closes at 4:00) and slowly made our way on the icy roads to the brewery in Frisco, where we enjoyed a heaping plate of nachos.

 

"He's Mister White Christmas..." otherwise known as Frostybeard. Even strangers were wowed by his inpenetrable mat of facial hair. That's just from the ride up the ski lift, it was snowing so hard!

Fortunately, we didn't linger too long because the snow was still coming down. I think we left somewhere around 5:00 and it was already dark; the freeway wasn't too jammed at first... until we got closer to the tunnel. It took us 50 minutes or so just to get from Frisco to the tunnel. Trust me, I don't even think it should take 10-15 minutes. Just before we reached the tunnel, it just turned into a circus. The snow was coming down heavy, and it was a long uphill grade to just reach the tunnel. All of us in our Toyotas and Subarus were sitting pretty with our 4x4s. In that kind of weather, where pretty soon they would have probably closed I-70, you shouldn't even go out if you don't have the right vehicle. Especially when it's ALL UPHILL. So there were all these people with little cars that were doing ok, until traffic stopped. Going uphill. Guess what happened to so many people? They couldn't get going again! Their tires just spun on the ice, right in the middle of the lane. Left lane, right lane, middle lane. It was like playing a game of frogger trying to avoid these sitting ducks! Of course there were people stuck all over the place - not just little cars, but those arrogant 4x4 drivers. A lot of folks that were having problems were out of staters - Texas, California, etc. Then there were the jackasses that tailgated us. Ridiculous. And worst of all, which I sympathized with the most, were the truckers. It was mandatory tire chains for commercial vehicles, and these poor guys aren't out there in a snowstorm on I-70 because they were having a fun leisurely day on the slopes... they're just trying to do their job, and what happens? Even with chains on, they're spinning tires, going nowhere uphill. Huge semis, chains making sparks on the road... even saw a couple guys that broke their chains, one guy nearly jackknifing trying to get out of the middle of the freeway. I mean, you can always push a little car, but those guys weren't going anywhere!

Even though it took us over 3 hours to get home (after 9 pm), and it was a pain, it was also kindof exciting to finally get a snowstorm. By the time we were past Idaho springs, there wasn't even any snow on the ground! Amazing what the continental divide can do with those winter storms. We were 20 minutes from home going up the snow-free canyon on 36 when literally, snow just came down like a thick white curtain. Out of nowhere. It was so bizarre! And nearly a total white out. We crawled around the curves at 20-25 miles an hour at most. And then it just stopped after 15 minutes, with the stars bright and clear in the sky. Go figure. ;)

Sunday, just overall a disappointing day in football. Eagles, Lions... hmph. Yesterday, was possibly the worst winds yet this winter. I couldn't even take the dog for a walk, it was just horrible. It wasn't even that cold, it was just incessant, relentless gusts of rocks and dirt pounding into the house, my truck, my motorcycle... it absolutely shredded my motorcycle cover last week. It would be really great if a house opened up in the park with a garage so I could keep it indoors! (Tim's roomie is being a brat about me keeping it in their huge 2 car garage.) In fact, it was so windy that it was scaring the crap out of my dog, who clung to me in the most annoying way all day. He doesn't mind thunderstorms or anything like that, but that darned wind...!! It's actually supposed to get up to 65 degrees today down in Denver, but another windy day. So far it's not as bad as yesterday. Here's what the news has to say about it. If they were 93 mph at Berthoud Pass, it's very likely that it nearly reached that much in Estes. Looks like the entire country is having a hell of a time with weather!

Here's some more local news. Estes Park keeps building and building and expanding, and it's getting a little old. I mean, you can only grow so much when you're nestled in the mountains, but people are finally starting to say, enough is enough. The town wants to develop some land by the Stanley Hotel, where Stephen King wrote "The Shining" and where to movie is based upon (though the actual movie was shot in Oregon).

More importantly, Tim had to go on a Search and Rescue last week... actually, it was a body recovery. The high winds last week, in a very poor twist of fate, made a tree fall on a hiker at Wild Basin and killed him. It also hit his friend, but he lived and hiked out to get help. Here's an article about it. Brian the "biologist" who is quoted in the article, got the job that should have been mine. Not that he's not qualified... It just should have been mine, dammit! ;)  Of course the media tried to blame the dead tree on pine beetles, saying it was the first "indirect death associated with the beetles", but that was just media hype and it wasn't a beetle kill tree. And the "two other foresters" or whatever they said that cut up the tree? That was Tim and another trail worker. ;)  And here's a video that shows Tim carrying the litter out with the other rescuers. He's the guy on the closer side of the litter with the only red hardhat and his headlamp off in that still image of the video on that page with the article... and you can't miss the beard. ;)  They show him a couple times if you watch the whole thing.

And since the snow-bug has bit us, and it's a pain to drive out to Summit County, we are getting a hotel Friday night in Breckenridge so we can hit the slopes for two days this weekend. We got a great deal on a room so really, when you figure that it takes over half a tank of gas to get there and back, it's not really that much more money. At least I'd like to think so. :P

 

Thousands of miles in the past few weeks

That's right, I've been all the way to Michigan, then came back and down to New Mexico... Gosh it feels good to be NOT traveling for well at least a couple weeks. The weekly trips down to summit county to ski will probably start this week or next. I'm a little behind compared to last year; Ryan was in Breckenridge while I was in New Mexico and I haven't even hit the slopes ONCE yet!

Visiting Michigan was short and sweet. Got to see a lot of friends but mostly hung out with the family; watched all of my football teams lose (Michigan to Wisconsin; Lions to umm the Giants I think?) but did get to hit up a Red Wings vs Columbus hockey game on Friday night with Linda, and spent my last evening in town eating chinese food and watching Saw 3 with the family (and then a quick trip to the bowling alley to cheer for my friends league). I always miss everybody more after seeing them, but the weather was, well, typical midwest winter - one giant continuous cloud the color of cement, with occassional rain. Yuck! Felt so good to get back to the sunshine of the Rockies!

Once I got back, it was time to go hunting! My buddy Tate took me as my guide and let me borrow a gun. We were up at 5 am and out to a friend's privately leased hunting property that is surrounded by forest service land - usually a hot spot for tons of deer. Guess what? Nobody had seen anything - deer, elk, jeez I think one guy said he had even only seen one rabbit! But we went out and stalked around and probably hiked 4-5 miles that morning, up and down the beautiful mountains. To make a long story short, we didn't see anything except a bighorn sheep (which is actually pretty cool, they NEVER are sighted there)... and a jackass in a truck (you're not even supposed to DRIVE on that road, it's private) shooting what would literally have been MY buck! It was right where we were headed, and he just drove up and told us he wasn't going to shoot a buck, and then boom! Boom! Down goes a nice big one. I don't even think the jackass left his truck and just shot it from the road! Needless to say, we were wayyyyy ticked off. Our attempt ended at noon, with the intent to try again on Sunday.

Sunday morning, 5 am. Same drill, different location. Another "hot spot". Only 2 other people there, up near Storm Mountain (I think it's actually called like Jug Gulch or something). We hiked around til 10 am and once again, didn't see a darned thing. Just a squirrel and a few chickadees. Oh well, what's a girl to do? The seasons out here are way short (different from Michigan) so that was my only chance until I think maybe spring. Would love to get a gun... but lots of other stuff I need to worry about right now. In any case, it was nice hiking around. Here's the sunset the first morning:

From Bandelier NM ...

I was done early enough that Sunday that I decided to head down to Bandelier National Monument a day earlier than planned. Loaded up the dog and made the 8 hr drive, arrived on Tim's doorstep just after 8:15 pm. Finally got to see him after 2 weeks! He did have to work every day, including Thanksgiving, so I mostly took Logan for short hikes around the area for as much as his hips could take. One day, we did the Mitchell Trail to the Natural Arch (2.2 miles); another day, hiked around Water Canyon (2 miles perhaps?); then did Deer Trap Mesa (2 miles). That seems to be as much as he could take, given all the rock scrambling we did. He had fun, though he was sore! It was a pretty low key visit, and after work it was already dark by the time Tim got home, so we mostly just ate a good dinner and watched movies. Thanksgiving, we had been excited to get sushi in Santa Fe; of course, nobody bothered to even see if it was open. Of course not. Nothing was open! But Tim, myself, and 2 other people drove down there anyway and drove around until we found a nice place at the Hilton to eat duck chimichangas and jalapeno poppers. ;)  Not quite what we had hoped for, but there's always good sushi in Fort Collins.

From Bandelier NM ...

Just got back into town this past Saturday night. My friend Kim had also just returned from a month's med school rotation in Portland, so she and I went out and ended up singing Johnny Cash songs at karaoke and hit up the wine and cheese place before she moved from Estes back down to Denver for yet another rotation. Poor girl moves ever 1-3 months!

Then last night, oh those Philadephia eagles! They blew it against New England. The boys were screaming and jumping up and down and ready to throw things at the TV. Hey, they lost the game themselves with some very poorly timed interceptions. That was about all the excitement I could take yesterday. ;)

Well, have a little going away party at the Rock to attend. Looks like I have a side job to help a climber take down a huge cottonwood on Wednesday. Yay, cash!

So, looks like I'll hopefully just be hanging out in Estes, snowboarding and learning to telemark, doing side jobs, walking the dog, and working out for at least the next couple weeks. Pretty exciting huh? I think so!

Waiting for an oil change

I'm hanging out in what I believe is the only place with wireless internet in the town of Lyons, besides the pizza place. Yep, the pizza place is wired, but it's a little early for pizza so I'm drinking coffee instead. Every time I've come to the Barking Dog Cafe, there's always a gaggle (at least 7) of retired old people laughing it up over their coffees and breakfast burritos. I'm always the youngest one in here if it's before 8:30 am! They seem to have a good time. :)

Since I'm pretty much just goofing off on the computer, waiting for an oil change/differential fluid check etc on my truck, I'll throw in random interesting stuff.

An article about how the feds up in Montana and Wyoming in particular like to kill lots of animals - usually for the sake of ranchers. Ahhh, the never ending battle between wolves and cattle. This is part of the reason (here's a bunch more reasons why) why I still refuse to eat beef. I'd rather see the total elimination of all cows than the death of a wolf. Another reason to switch to bison! Seriously. Bison AND wolves were here LONG before cows and ranchers were. Actually, let me look up some stats to show you just why bison (or beefalo, the bison-cow hybrid) is the better choice. Let's quit this "killing wolves to reduce economic losses to ranchers"! (Yes, all those blue links are different websites)

While I was browsing, I got a kick out of this: "Great Old Broads for Wilderness." Good name. :)  They do take younger folk and men into their "wrinkled ranks," too.

I decided earlier this week that I really like walking the dog at night. Though, walking a black dog through a neighborhood with barely any lights on a black asphalt road could potentially be dangerous... But then again, I wouldn't be able to see the clear starry sky if there were lights! Fortunately, there's not a lot of traffic throug the park housing area, and we get well off the road when somebody comes by. There were quite a few shooting stars last night, and it was crisp and cold. Felt good!

I'm still assembling my telemark ski gear... Next up, bindings. Try to get those for under $120. Then, I need skins so I can go uphill. Those aren't cheap either. And I really should get a helmet for snowboarding. Thank god my unemployment check is FAT! Seriously, I can't find a job up here that pays more than unemployment! I'm much better off this winter than I was last year. I'd have to find a job for more than $11/hr for it to be finacially "worth" working. And with a few sidejobs every month, I'll be sitting pretty good! (Tim and I cut firewood for a buddy last weekend; hopefully will get to do that again... though, in a freak accident, a log bounced off the spare tire in the truck bed and shattered the back window of the work truck... just as Tim said, "Don't worry, it's plastic" when I told him to be careful of said window, ha ha! Fortunately, Wendy didn't care much, "it's a work truck" was her reply.)

Well, truck is ready and I need to go down to Boulder and run some errands. Tomorrow, Logan goes to the kennel, and I leave at 9:30 PM for the airport for a 12:30 am departure... arrive in Detroit (with the time change and 2 hr 45 minute flight) at freakin' 5:40 am!! Thank god my mom is picking me up so I can pass out. Did I already mention that I am going to the Red Wings game with my sister Friday night? Watching the U of M game on a 62" plasma HD tv with all my college friends on Saturday? Gonna be a great freakin' time!!